News Story

A bill has been proposed to give adoptees 21 and older access to birth certificates, which often contain birth parents’ names. Adoptees who support the law say they should be given the same opportunity as everyone else to know who ...

Plaintiffs could not bring a medical malpractice suit against a doctor for whom the U.S. was substituted as defendant without first exhausting their administrative remedies under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a U.S. magistrate judge has ruled. The plaintiffs argued ...

Judge Thomas H. Needham, who served on the Superior Court for more than 25 years and oversaw the first attempted murder trial of Claus von Bulow, has died. He was 77. Needham died unexpectedly at his Cranston home. He had ...

A Superior Court judge could not be held liable for corrupt acts, as the doctrine of judicial immunity shielded his actions undertaken while serving in an official capacity, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled. The plaintiff argued that the ...

Gov. Lincoln Almond nominated Stephen P. Nugent to succeed Judge Domenic F. Cresto on the Superior Court bench. Nugent, the head of the Rhode Island Public Defender’s Office, will still have to be confirmed to the post by the Senate. ...

A state prison policy allowing blanket strip searches of inmates has been declared unconstitutional by a federal court judge. U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi ruled that the Department of Corrections did not properly specify when a guard can ...

A bill that would make it easier for homeowners to sue companies for manufacturing lead-based paint has drawn support from affected families and objections from paint industry lawyers and lobbyists. The bill lifts a 10-year statute of limitations on such ...

An inmate’s motion for a downward departure in sentencing may be granted based on his post-sentence rehabilitation, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held. The government argued that the Sentencing Reform Act prevents courts from considering the inmate’s ...

A lawyer could not be convicted of harboring two former clients where he did not know that they had committed a particular crime and were subject to arrest, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled. Previously, the lawyer’s motion for ...

Evidence of a third-party settlement between the mother of a car-accident victim and the insurance carrier for the other driver warranted a new trial, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has held. On appeal, the defendant argued that the trial judge ...